Monday, August 13, 2018

Emmy Predictions 2018 - Who Will and Should Win for Directing in a Limited Series or TV Movie?

The nominations are in for The 70th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards. So now, it's time to speculate on who will and should win in each major category. Next up for analysis is Directing for a Limited Series or TV Movie.






The Nominees Ranked By Which Director Should Win:
  1. David Lynch for Showtime's Twin Peaks: The Return
  2. David Leveaux and Alex Rudzinski for NBC's Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert
  3. Craig Zisk for Hulu's The Looming Tower - "9/11"
  4. Edward Berger for Showtime's Patrick Melrose
  5. Ryan Murphy for FX's The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story - "The Man Who Would Be Vogue"
  6. Scott Frank for Netflix's Godless
  7. Barry Levinson for HBO's Paterno

Just like I mentioned over in the writing category for limited series, there is so much tremendous work happening in this genre. This is a fantastic list of nominees. Sure, I think it's easy to count out Paterno as the one that sailed through mostly because of Barry Levinson's name recognition and HBO's strength with TV movies. But the rest of the field did tremendous work this year. Of course, David Lynch stands above the rest of the nominees. The Twin Peaks revival could have gone wrong in so many different ways. It was a huge undertaking by Lynch. And yet, he delivered 18 hours of such fascinating story presented in such an unusual way - especially in the eighth hour. Meanwhile, the Jesus Christ Superstar team put their own distinct touch on the classic musical while also doing things in a different way than the other live musicals produced over the last few years. And all of the other nominees are simply operating at the peak of their abilities and presenting the stories of their respective series in ways that enrich the material and allow the best aspects of the shows to shine through for the audience. Again, such remarkable achievement this year.

The Nominees Ranked by Which Director Will Win:
  1. David Lynch for Showtime's Twin Peaks: The Return
  2. Ryan Murphy for FX's The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story - "The Man Who Would Be Vogue"
  3. Scott Frank for Netflix's Godless
  4. Edward Berger for Showtime's Patrick Melrose
  5. David Leveaux and Alex Rudzinski for NBC's Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert
  6. Barry Levinson for HBO's Paterno
  7. Craig Zisk for Hulu's The Looming Tower - "9/11"

This feels like the category that should easily go to Twin Peaks and David Lynch. He was most involved with the directing of the series. That stylistic design was so crucial to the function of the show as well. It would be most rewarding if the show won here. And if not here, then it has to be in the sound categories. But Ryan Murphy has to be seen as a huge contender as well because he has won before as a director and has gotten multiple nominations in this category thanks to his various anthology series. Voters clearly love him and the style that he brings to his respective shows. Voters could just as easily be enamored with the way that Scott Frank chose to showcase the vast desert landscape of his Western drama. That was such a beautiful backdrop for a show and easily the most action packed of the nominees here. Elsewhere, an argument could be made for the Jesus Christ Superstar team as well. It just seems much more likely that they will prevail as a Variety Special or in the other technical categories. As such, there is less reason to make sure they win here despite needing to win something.


What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with my predictions? Let me know in the comments below!